Thursday, 25 July 2013

上湯水餃 Soup Dumplings

我們中國人很喜歡吃餃子，無論是上海或北方式的水餃、蒸餃、煎餃；或廣東、香港式的上湯水餃，都是人們自小吃大，心愛的民間食物之一。

We Chinese love dumplings. Whether it be the Shanghai, Beijing style boiled, steamed, pan-fried; or the Guangdong, Hong Kong style soup dumplings; they are some of the most popular folk foods that we ate and grew up with.

Compare to Guangdong and Hong Kong; dumplings made in "other provinces" come in a greater variety, and their ingredients can be made up of all different kinds of meat; seafood, as well as a mixture of preserved and fresh vegetables. This is because in these provinces, their daily diet is based on food that's made with wheat flour like dumplings; therefore dumplings have become traditional family food which they consume on a daily basis and on special and festival celebration times in these places.

On the other hand the southern part of China is well known for their valuable access to fish and rice produces; the dumplings we have in Hong Kong are mainly made with rice flour. Bear that in mind though, the dumplings that are sold in noodle stalls and noodle shops are different to those "dim sum dumplings" that we have in Cantonese restaurants. In Hong Kong, if you want to eat soup dumplings, it's better if you go to noodle stalls or noodle shops, as you can only have the proper and genuine Hong Kong style "soup dumplings" there.

我是甚麼形式的餃子也愛。但平常做的，多是上海和北方的口味； 水煮、蒸或煎。也通常都是自己做餃子皮去包。

最近天氣苦熱翳悶，胃口不怎麼好。卻突然間緬懷起以往吃麵的日子，很想念在香港時吃的水餃。

I love all different types of dumplings, though I normally made the Shanghai and Beijing type a bit more often. And I usually made the wrappers myself too.

It was so hot and humid lately; didn't feel like eating or cooking. Somehow I started to miss having those soup noodles and dumplings in Hong Kong.

With soup dumplings, you have to use very thin dumpling skins. And it so happened that I had just run out of rice flour, so I came up with an idea which could produce super thin wheat flour wrappers. Rolling up my sleeves, I put my plans into action. The fillings were very simple to prepare too.

We don't put vegetables inside the fillings in Hong Kong. Instead we arranged some branched green vegetables on the bottom of the bowl, spoon in the dumplings, and pour in the soup; sprinkle some chopped yellow chives on top. Then a large bowl of steaming and aromatic " soup dumplings" is ready. Served with red vinegar and chilli oil; imagine enjoying a mouthful of these delicious, soft yet crunchy dumplings, accompanied by a mouthful of fresh tasting soup. This is the soup dumplings Hong Kong style.

被推擀得薄薄的麵皮內裏著又大又肥美的水餃；滿足了腸胃，消解了鄉愁。

Kneaded and rolled out the dough thinly to make my own dumpling wrappers. Eating these homemade soup dumplings later, my stomach felt a lot more settled, and so was my homesickness.

Thank you very much!! I'm glad you and your daughter love soup dumplings too.Making these together is going to be an unforgettable experience for you both to look back in the future; same as any other cooking time that you spent with her during her childhood :)

I believe you can, though I've never made enough to have them put away. We usually devour them faster than we making them :)I think you need to place them on a floured large flat container and space them out, covered and put the whole container in the freezer. You can store them for up to 3 months in the freezing compartment.

If you're not going to cook them straight away, I think it's better if you put them straight into the freezer after you've made them. I found that dumplings being kept in the fridge tend to become soften and hard to handle. You can cook them straight from frozen, just try a couple initially to find out how long it takes to cook it through - it's very important that you cook the food through when cook from frozen.

Thank you!! Wish I could serve you some :) Shop bought pastry is ok to pan-fry, steam or boil；I just feel that soup dumplings need to have very thin wrappers, and it's really difficult to buy good ones even in Hong Kong ～

You can use rice flour, but you will have to add some other flour into it too, I haven't worked it out the best recipes just yet ... I've seen your post, well done for making the dumplings successfully with your daughter, I guess you used plain flour then.